Update: version: 3.0.0 now live!
In the latest update of LockChain, several new upgrades have been introduced. The first major upgrade is AiQArt. Since LockChain is in the business of advanced tamper-proof QR code technology, adding AI-Art QR codes is beneficial to the userbase and the app’s capabilities. It will drive new traffic to the app, including users that may not necessarily be thinking of immutable digital identities yet. From there however, the onboarding process to that functionality should be more inviting, namely because frequent users of AI technology might more easily lean towards the importance of immutable digital identities to differentiate between humans and AI on the internet.
The second largest update is a major UI redesign. We added several new animations and redesigned certain elements for a fresh experience. The top toolbar was moved to the bottom of the screen which added more natural navigational functionality to the major parts of the app like the home screen. Also, this is where the icons of future screens will be as well, potentially including a social feed. Users sharing and upvoting other users’ AiQArt would be a fun and interactive way expand the community. Additionally, building up LockChain profiles in that manner would incentivize more frequent immutable identity usage, like signing and claiming artworks to specific artists, or creating the AiQArt codes’ content with tamper-proof data as well. This can also open the door for contests and events and other social activities within the community.
In a post-AGI world, community will be paramount. As AI and robots replace human workers over time, the mean average for humans working will naturally decrease. This will enable humans more time to explore their passions, culture, travelling and communities. Online communities are only growing and will continue to do so. No matter how much AGI and robots will permeate into our lives, humans will always naturally crave interactions with other humans. Consider this: Deep Blue AI beat Kasparov in chess in 1997. Watson beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in Jeopardy! in 2011. AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol in 2016. Yet if you observe the view counts of human vs. human in Chess, Jeopardy! and AlphaGo, it dominates over the almost non-existent AI vs. human counterpart. This is why community will explode in the coming decade. Humans will have more free time to join the communities of other humans. Therefore, building up LockChain’s community on social apps and potentially implementing a social feed into the app would be beneficial.
As for the other updates, you can view the detailed patch notes in the app upon launch. Now that we have covered the past, let’s talk about the future. These will be in chronological order.
Lower blockchain interaction cost (available now)
The first thing we have begun working on is lowering the cost of the blockchain interactions that pertain to the data (file upload) and identity immutability (tamper-proof QR codes) functionalities of the app. Currently the costs are hardcoded way too high. The billing library used for our functions that interact with Bitcoin’s ledger is Google Billing and Subscriptions. This API was initially chosen for its simplicity, reliability, trustworthiness and the native integration of Play Console, the entity by Google that oversees the Play Store. However, the downside is that there are no dynamic prices for in-app purchases. When the app was being developed in the winter of 2023, Bitcoin’s transaction fees averaged around $8-10, with spikes as high as $20+. As you may know, identity enrollment and data uploads require an on-chain transaction on our backend which incurs these dynamic and unpredictable fees. To ensure that our expenses get covered, we had to hardcode the price quite high so that LockChain’s Bitcoin address wouldn’t be incurring deficits during enrollment or file upload while Bitcoin fees were higher than the user’s purchase. You can learn more about how our app creates tamper-proof QR codes and blockchain verified files here.
High costs like this are quite a large barrier to entry for acquiring new users. By lowering the cost of entry, we essentially lower the hurdle rate to new user acquisition. To do this, we will replace the Google Billing API with Stripe’s API, which supports dynamic pricing for purchases. Google Billing for subscriptions will remain as its already well integrated and functional, but for any in-app, one-time purchases that incur Bitcoin transaction fees like immutable identity enrollment and data upload, the pricing will be much more attractive and affordable, on average. Instead of paying the hardcoded $37.99 that is offered on the basic plan to enroll your digital identity, it would be currentBitcoinFee * y% serviceFee. For example, if we’d use today’s average Bitcoin fee (2025-01-08) of $1.80 with a 10% service fee, enrollment would cost $1.98! Even if we average out the Bitcoin fee price over the last 12 months to $15.00, that would still be a $16.50 enrollment, a 50% decrease from today’s hardcoded price. Better yet on days with today’s cheap fees, that’s over a 90% haircut! Of course, this is all dependent on Bitcoin’s network congestion but at least the user is free to choose their own timing and pricing depending on a decentralized server and not LockChain’s centralized, fixed pricing model.
Server-side verification (available now)
The next item in the roadmap is server-side verification. Currently, the tamper-proof QR codes are quite dense and dependent on the app to undergo verification. To lower the density of the QR data, compression algorithms like Brotli were researched but it still didn’t yield significantly higher compression ratios. In other words, the QR code still came out nearly as dense as before. A solution is providing an option for server-side verification. This means instead of a large JSON payload as seen below and expanded on in the DIY Verify LockChain Codes blog, there will be an option to generate a regular URL in the QR code, which would point to our webpage that will display the results of the server-side verification process in the backend. This shorter link will have a unique identification number (UID) in the URL’s slug that will be linked to the user’s QR data in our database. We won’t be disabling the in-app, raw QR code that we currently use, but will offer this URL-compression as a toggled option for those that want to maximize reliability and reach.
There are several benefits to this. For one, it will yield QR codes that are less dense and more scannable, which is important. Second, it will be cross platform since most modern smartphones have built-in QR code scanning functionality in their camera app. It will also mean the verification happens in the backend server and displays the result on a Lockchain dynamic webpage that opens from the scan, so users verifying content don’t even have to download the app. Currently, to scan and verify LockChain’s tamper-proof QR codes, you must do so on the app because the app’s software has specific cryptographic functions to authenticate the data. With this upgrade to server-side verification, anyone without the app on any phone can verify the QR code. This is a major step forward to bringing content verification to the mainstream audience, reaching users far beyond LockChain itself. This method won’t compromise security since the shortened URL and the QR data is cryptographically signed and must be verified by the cryptographic functions. And the UID of the QR data must be created first so that it can be passed to the private key signing process to be signed, which means that the special short URL itself must pass verification to ensure further authenticity.
These two updates are a priority for increasing our user base. By lowering enrollment fees on average 50-90% and enabling cross-platform and off-app verification of these codes, we can bring digital identity authentication to a much wider audience in a shorter amount of time, which is very much required.
Not everyone shares the fervor for immutable identity verification as we do, but that’s because LockChain is future proofing for a need that not everybody thinks they need yet. As the blog post Fold 15 explains: the advancement in AI generated audio and image capabilities is increasing exponentially alongside the evolution of AGI. Furthermore, the time between AGI and superintelligent AI, which are two different things, will be vastly shorter than the time between the digital computer age and AGI. Superintelligent AI are intelligences that we cannot even comprehend yet. Ray Kurzweil, a notable and legendary expert in this field pins AGI’s arrival to 2029, and superintelligent AI shortly after. These digital lifeforms will be able to do anything a human does behind a keyboard and screen but significantly better. Therefore, with these artificial intelligences interacting with us on the internet, we need to prepare for a future where we can authentically differentiate between real humans and AIs.
File signing with identity (upcoming)
Currently our two main authentication functions, data and identity, are separated in terms of access. In theory, a LockChain user who is enrolled can embed the file’s transaction ID they uploaded to the blockchain into a tamper-proof QR code, which would essentially serve the purpose of digitally signing and claiming a tamper-proof file. But we are looking to integrate this process into an easier to use and seamless function.
Digital signatures using cryptography have been around for decades, from the cypherpunks with PGP in 1991 to corporate giants like Adobe today. However, PGP software isn’t intuitive to use for a non-tech user. Adobe Sign allows users to electronically sign documents which uses encryption to ensure the signature is authentic and legally binding. Furthermore, they support digital signatures which are certificate-based digital IDs issues by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), where they provide the user a public key. This method may suffice when it pertains to personal documents between two parties like a contract or personal legal document and a third-party is required to mediate, which can be argued is unnecessary. But there is a plethora of public documents that must be verifiable globally and by anyone. Offering public key infrastructure (PKI) issued by a CA poses deep and complicated barriers for anyone to announce an important file they must verify to the world in an efficient, uncensored and openly verifiable way. This is the problem LockChain will aim to solve with this update. Receiving a digital certificate from a CA incurs costs that are higher than Bitcoin transaction fees on average, wait times that are longer than final block settlements, censorship policies by the Certificate Authorities which Bitcoin doesn’t care about, and geographical restrictions which again, isn’t limited by Bitcoin. And in the age of growing digital adoption, we think public digital files that need to be globally verified outnumber the personal, peer-to-peer files that LockChain doesn’t necessarily target now. Things like content, official announcements and statements, open-source software, public records, art, NFTs, public code repositories, academic/scientific publications, public data, analytics reports or credentials/certificates can all benefit from Bitcoin blockchain verification.
We are excited to explore a potential future where we will begin a venture of digital file signing using Bitcoin’s blockchain specifically targeting enterprises and businesses. We believe we can offer a more secure and cheaper way for companies and businesses to sign, verify and store digital files that do not rely on third party platforms which are honeypots for attacks. In 2020, the SolarWinds hack could have been prevented with LockChain’s blockchain-based signatures, instantly detecting any tampered software updates. In 2021, the CodeCov breach exposed data through a tampered script. LockChain’s blockchain verification would have flagged any unauthorized changes immediately. In 2011, the DigiNotar hack exposed the risks of centralized CAs. LockChain’s decentralized identities would have made fraudulent certificates impossible to issue. There are examples repeatedly of centralizing trust into a single entity or software.
iOS (TBA)
The last item on the roadmap will be to begin work on the iOS version at some point in the latter half of 2025 to open to the Apple market. AiQArt is available as a web-based product on our website here, but unfortunately the rest of the app’s functionality is only available to Android users for now.
Stay tuned for future updates and thank you for your support!
Don’t trust. Verify.